Recently, a medium-level representation named "Stixel" has been extensively researched in stereo vision-based environmental perception. Obstacle detection using Stixel representation consists of three steps: static Stixel generation, dynamic Stixel generation, and Stixel segmentation. This paper focuses on the Stixel segmentation step and has two contributions. One is that it shows that Stixel segmentation performance can be enhanced by utilizing both image domain and real world domain features. The other is that it suggests that parameters used for Stixel segmentation can be effectively tuned based on genetic algorithm. The proposed method was quantitatively evaluated and the result showed that the proposed method increased Stixel segmentation accuracy compared with the previous method.

The Durability cycle is very important for the success of vehicle testing to evaluate Retarder. The purpose of this study is to develop the durability mode on performance evaluation of retarder. Commercial vehicles are equipped with an auxiliary braking device in order to increase safety. A typical device for retarder depends heavily on imports. Domestic development has now become an urgent task. But, No state has an evaluation method for performance evaluation of the auxiliary braking device. We presented the durability test mode for the performance evaluation of the retarder was verified experimentally.

Automobile crash optimization is nonlinear dynamic response structural optimization that uses highly nonlinear crash analysis in the time domain. The equivalent static loads (ESLs) method has been proposed to solve such problems. The ESLs are the static load sets generating the same displacement field as that of nonlinear dynamic analysis. Linear static response structural optimization is employed with the ESLs as multiple loading conditions. Nonlinear dynamic analysis and linear static structural optimization are repeated until the convergence criteria are satisfied. Nonlinear dynamic crash analysis for frontal analysis may not have boundary conditions, but boundary conditions are required in linear static response optimization. This study proposes a method to use the inertia relief method to overcome the mismatch. An optimization problem is formulated for the design of an automobile frontal structure and solved by the proposed method.

The efficiency of a powertrain system of hybrid vehicle is highly dependent on the design and control of the hybrid powertrain system. In other words, the optimal design of the powertrain systems is coupled with optimal control of the powertrain system. Therefore, the solution of an optimal design problem for hybrid vehicles is computationally and timely very expensive. For example, dynamic programming, which is a recursive optimization method, is usually used to evaluate the best fuel economy of certain hybrid vehicle design, and, thus, the evaluation takes tens of minutes to several hours. This research aims to accelerate the speed of efficiency evaluation of hybrid vehicles. We suggest a mathematical treat and a methodological treat to reduce the computational load. The mathematical treat is that the dynamics of system is discretized with sparse sampling time without loss of energy balance. The methodological treat is that the efficiency of the hybrid vehicle is inferred by characteristic loss evaluation that is computationally inexpensive. With the suggested methodology, evaluating a design candidate of hybrid powertrain system is taken few minutes, which was taken several hours when dynamic programming is used.

The friction material for automobile is manufactured by mixing several composites to stop the running vehicles. Friction characteristics are changed significantly according to the relative amount of the base materials. However, difference of friction coefficient is sometimes measured at the test for the same friction material. Nevertheless, the study for solving these problems is insufficient. In this paper, the friction tests were carried out by changing the external environment and processing condition when the main ingredients are fixed and also evaluated how the friction coefficient changes. The variables are cooling air speed, humidity (Relative humidity and Absolute humidity), scorching time, soaking time and pad area. And it is analytically considered which environmental factor mainly affects the characteristic of friction coefficient variation by experiment. It is expected that the results from this study can be very useful as a database for development of the friction material.

Nitrogen oxide(NOx) emission reductions are required to meet the strict emission regulations for environmental protection. Most of the Exhaust Gas Recirculation(EGR) system applied to a diesel engine can relatively decrease the NOx at a low cost, but it has a disadvantage in that the PM generation is promoted due to the hot intake air temperature. Thus, high heat exchange efficiency of the EGR cooler is required for an effective removal of NOx. In this study, heat exchange efficiency for various types of heat exchangers used in EGR cooler was measured under same conditions, and determined best heat exchange performance shape depending on type of heat exchanger.

Recently Digital-TachoGraph(DTG) was mounted mandatorily in commercial vehicles(Taxi, Bus, etc.). DTG records accurate and detailed information of the running state of vehicles related to traffic accident, such as Time, Distance, Velocity, RPM, Brake ON/OFF, GPS, Azimuth, Acceleration. Thus those standardized data can play an important role in traffic accident investigation and reconstruction. To develope the accurate and objective method using the DTG data for the reconstruction of traffic accident, we had conducted several tests such as driving test, high speed circuit test, braking test, slalom test at Korea Automobile Testing & Research Institute(KATRI), and collision test at Korea Automobile insurance repair Research and Training center(KART) with the vehicle equipped with several DTG. Development of the program which enables the reading and analysis of the DTG data was followed. In the experiments, we have found velocity error, RPM error, brake signal error and azimuth error in several products, and also non-continuous event data. The cause of these errors was deduced to be related to the correction factor, the durability of electronic parts and the algorithm.

This study proposes a control strategy of the common rail pressure with a fuel injection limitation algorithm to reduce particulate matter (PM) emissions under transient states. The proposed control strategy consists of two parts: injection quantity limitation and rail pressure adaptation. The injection limitation algorithm determines the maximum allowable fuel injection quantity to avoid rich combustion under transient states. The fuel injection quantity is limited by predicting the burned gas rate after combustion; however, the reduced injection quantity leads to deterioration of engine torque. The common rail pressure adaptation strategy is designed to compensate for the reduced engine torque. An increase of the rail pressure under transient states contributes to enhancement of the engine torque as well as reduction of PM emissions by promoting atomization of the injected fuel. The proposed control strategy is validated through engine experiments. The rail pressure adaptation reduced the PM emission by 5-10% and enhanced the engine torque up to 2.5%.

The ROM (roll over mitigation) system is a next-generation suspension system that can improve vehicle-driving stability and ride comfort. Currently, mass-produced safety systems, such as ESC (electronic stability control) and ECS (electronic control suspension), enable measurements of longitudinal and lateral acceleration as well as yaw rate through inertial sensor clusters, but they lack direct measurements of the roll angle. Therefore, in this paper, a roll angle estimation algorithm from ESC system sensors and tire normal force has been proposed. Furthermore, this study presents a method for roll over mitigation force distribution between the front and rear of a ROM system. Performance and reliability of the roll angle estimation and roll over mitigation force distribution were investigated through simulations. The simulation results showed that the proposed control algorithm and strategy are reliable during vehicle rollovers.

Resistance Spot Welding (RSW) is the method for joining two overlapped base materials when high pressure and current is applied from electrodes. Due to the safety problem such high pressure and voltage, automation should be early adopted. In this paper, the spot welding is developed as a computational model of wheel house from GM Korea and the welding condition such as weld sequence is considered. The computational analysis is preceded as a static and elasto-plastic procedure and used thermal expansion coefficient represents a dependency of spot volume between two panels. In case of welding sequence, the efficiency which depends on the distance between current spot point and the other is calculated in several cases.

A high energy ignition system is essential for lean burn or high EGR gasoline engine, which is getting more and more interest to improve fuel economy. The high energy ignition systems comprise plasma jet, laser beam, corona discharge and so on. In this study, a high energy ignition system using corona discharge is developed and tested in a constant volume combustion chamber. The developed system shows extension of lean limit of propane-air mixture and enhencement of combustion speed. Various shape of corona discharge plugs are also tested and compared in this study.

In the present study, multi-layered Si DLC (Silicon Diamond-Like Carbon) coatings with HMDSO (Hexamethyldisiloxane) buffer layers are applied on SKD 11 substrates by PECVD (Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition) with different HMDSO gas flow rates, while the gas flow rate of is fixed to enhance the electric resistivity of forming dies for electrically assisted forming. The HMDSO buffer layer is introduced to increase adhesion between the base metal and Si-DLC layers. The result of evaluation of electric resistivity and adhesion strength shows that the properties are affected by the flow rate of HMDSO, while the flow rate of 80 sccm results in the coating with the highest electric resistivity and adhesion strength among the selected flow rates.